A drug driver who veered across a main road and ploughed head-on into a double decker bus – just 3 years after rolling his car in Ventnor Town Centre – has been banned from the roads for 40 months.
47-year-old Ian Phillips appeared before the Isle of Wight Magistrates Court earlier this month charged with drug driving (THC) following a serious road traffic collision in August last year.
It was during the early hours of 29th August that emergency services were called to Clarence Road, Wroxall following reports of a head-on collision between a Ford Focus ST and a Southern Vectis double decker bus.
The impact was significant, resulting in substantial damage to both the Focus and the bus. The car ended up off the road and in a field with the driver – Phillips, of Trinity Road in Ventnor – sustaining serious injuries.
The Hampshire & Isle of Wight Air Ambulance was scrambled to the scene and later airlifted Phillips to Southampton General Hospital for further treatment.
Those on board the bus also sustained injuries and were treated by the Isle of Wight Ambulance Service.
Last year’s crash came almost 3 years to the day after Phillips rolled his Toyota Yaris on the High Street in Ventnor.
It was on 18th August 2021 that a then 43-year-old Phillips was driving down Spring Hill when his foot slipped off the brake and onto the accelerator. To stop the vehicle from crashing into pedestrians, he turned the wheel which resulted in the vehicle rolling over.
Phillips ran away from the scene but was arrested nearby, blowing 65 at the roadside. He went on to blow 40 on the evidential breathalyser and was duly banned from driving for 12 months by the Isle of Wight Magistrates Court the following month.
Taking into account the seriousness of this latest crash and his offending history, Magistrates banned Ian Phillips from driving for a total period of 40 months, fined him £200 and ordered him to pay £85 costs.
Look at him he looks like a nonce
Scumbag. Plain and simple. Foot slipped off the brake, don’t make me laugh, most of Ventnor know what he was planning to do, he just couldn’t carry out his plan as he was to drugged up. No prison sentence, yet another unduly lenient sentence handed out. He will do this again for sure.
Do bans actually mean anything!
If I had a pound everytime I read a drink or
drug driver who is banned is caught at the wheel
whilst being banned.
‘I would be a Millionaire’
Does anyone actually monitor these Numpty’s!
Such Numpty’s will never change their ways, time
to lock them up for good and I mean for good.
These uneducated Numpty’s will NEVER be good
for society.
Why are Magistrates not sending these more serious cases to the Crown Court for sentencing? They are overstretching their remit and dumbing down sentencing in the process with a resultant lack of public confidence.